Cover image for Writing and civilization [dvd videorecording] : from ancient worlds to modernity
Title:
Writing and civilization [dvd videorecording] : from ancient worlds to modernity
Author:
Zender, Marc.
ISBN:
9781598039894
Publication Information:
Chantilly, Va : Teaching Company, 2013.
Physical Description:
4 videodiscs (approximately 720 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 course guidebook (volumes, 232 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm).
Series:
Great courses. Literature & language

Great courses (DVD). Literature and language.
General Note:
24 lectures (30 min. each).

Teaching Company: PD2241A.

Course guidebook includes professor biography, typographical conventions, course scope, lecture guides, glossary, bibliography.
Contents:
Disc 1. What is writing -- The origins and development of writing -- Where did our alphabet come from? -- The fubark : a German alphabet -- Chinese : a logosyllabic script -- Japanese : the world's mos complex script.

Disc 2. What is decipherment? -- The five pillars of decipherment -- Epigraphic illustration -- The history of language -- Proper nouns and cultural context -- Bilinguals, biscripts, and other constraints.

Disc 3. Egyptian : the first great decipherment -- What do Egyptian hieroglyphs say? -- Old Persian : cuneiform deciphered -- What does cuneiform say? -- Mycenaean linear B : an ancient syllabary -- Mayan glyphs : a new world logosyllabary.

Disc 4. What do the Mayan glyphs say? -- Aztec hieroglyphs : a recent decipherment -- Etruscan and Meroitic : undeciphered scripts -- Han'gul, Tengwar, and other featural scripts -- Medium and message -- The future of writing.
Abstract:
In this course, you'll trace the remarkable saga of the invention and evolution of "visible speech," from its earliest origins to its future in the digital age. Professor Marc Zender--Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University and an accomplished epigrapher--whisks you around the globe on a thrilling journey to explore how an array of sophisticated writing systems developed, then were adopted and adapted by surrounding cultures.
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Writing and civilization DVD.